12 replies to this topic

[adammini]

Hi all,

Ive just bought a sip 130 turbo from ebay, so im now going to lean to weld!
I have been wanting to for ages, and now the mini needs a hole in the front floor pan welding up, what better time to start!
Im going to buy one of the variable elcetric masks soon as they look very useful.

Does anyone have any tips for the beginner?


Thanks

Adam

[R1minimagic]

A good way to start, if you have never welded before, is on some scraps of metal rather than the car itself. Try overlapping two plates and seam welding along the edge. Have you got any books on the subject?

You will need to set the correct ampage, wire speed and gas flow for the material you are welding but this is trial and error.

When you come to doing the car, make sure you cut out as much of the rusty metal as possible and make everything clean and shiny with a grinder or sander. If you try welding thin, rusty bits you will just end up blowing holes through it!

Hope that helps
Dale

[Will]

This should help you out a bit.... CLICK ME!

[cooper_shaz]

Get a few pieces of scrap metal and practice... lay them approx 1mm apart and try to put a tack (small spot of weld) to join them

Always tack the piece every 10 - 20mm and then come back and run a sem

Are you using gas or gasless wire ?

When you weld with mig the surface you are welding should be clean, very clean...

set the wire feed to about 6 and set the switches to 1 and min/low, gas valve about 70% open
if it is gasless then you do need to bother about it..

hold the welding torch like a pencil (I.e. same angle) and keep the torch about
3-5 mm above the surface

get an auto welding mask, they are great, about 30 quid of ebay, set it to 7
as this will give good protection..

When you start welding it is not a bad thing to have a decent lamp shining on the workpiece to help you see, you will get used to it after a while and wont need the lamp..

When you weld the scrap pieces start by keeping the torch in one place so that you blow holes through it.. This will give you an idea of how much time you can spend in one place... look at the piece both sides once you have blown the hole though to see the effect

Too many new welders put a weld on the surface that has not actually joined the 2 pieces together properly because they move too fast across the piece.

Blow holes through the metal, then next time try to stop just a split sec before
and so forth and so forth, have a look at the metal both sides to see how the weld looks

This will let you gauge the weld and the penetration of the weld..

You should have a sound like crackling bacon when doing the seem weld

If you dont then adjust current and gas till you do.

Best thing is practice and use the extreme settings of you machine, min and max, too much gas (just finishes faster) and then no gas to see what happens to the welds. Once you recognise those you will be able to adjust the machine whilst welding to get the best results.

Hope this helps...

Shaz

[adammini]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I will defenately get some scrap to practice on, my poor mini has been botched so much in the past, I want to start correcting all that.

The welder is a gas one, ive heard that argon gas is best to use, not the mixed stuff?

I have a small book on welding which is by sip, it seems very helpful and mini restoration by haynes.

My aim is to learn to weld so that you let in the metal rather than patching to hopefully look as if the panels have not been welded.

Is there any differences (apart from wire and gas) to welding stainless steel and aluminium? I have a cracked stainless steel manifold that i would love to be able to mend.



Thanks Adam

[minimole]

i found that on my welder with is the sip 150 i had to turn it up to medium low as i wasnt getting enough penertration with it on low. best thing to read everything on the site mentioned above it will give a basic idea of what you are supposed to do the just experiment. i also found that if you have a mask that sits on you head instead of having to hold it then it allows you to use other hand to help steady the torch.

[Bungle]

dissconect the car battery before welding :wink:

[adammini]

Ah yes, thanks top tip!

Also, when I last had welding done on the mini, my cd player didnt work afterwards. I had to get it repaired as part of it had blown.

Should I have disconnected if before I had the welding done?

Thanks

Adam

[Bungle]

as far as i know you just have to dissconect the battery :erm:

but i couldnt tell you why :fear:

[Mini Mad Rich]

Personally I'd get a evening course at your local college or something if you've never done it before. At the moment welding is part of the course I'm doing now and it will be my second welding quifcation, so I can now weld using both gas and MIG and soon I'l start to do flame cutting

MMR

[philly c]

always chase the area to weld, so never drag the wender toward you always chase it.

I got told once if it sounds like bacon crackeling in the pan its a good sign :tongue:

[philly c]

o year and dont let the gun touch the metal as it will get stuck of the wire will get stuck in the tip!

[adammini]

thanks philly c, I think I should start a notebook with all this useful stuff in!

I cant wait until I get the welder, I hope to have a practice the weekend after next so I will let you know how I get on.

Also, what welders do people use? I thought the sip 130 would be adequate as im not welding very thick metal on the mini!